Interpol defers its General Assembly

Interpol has, for the first time in its history, decided to postpone its General Assembly (GA), which had been scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December, because of the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

The 89th General Assembly of all 194-member countries of Interpol was to discuss cooperation in tackling terrorism, organised crime and criminal networks, among other aspects of policing. Interpol’s executive committee concluded that it is inadvisable and materially impossible to hold the GA anywhere in the world this year.

“Due to legal, technical and logistical reasons, there is currently also no viable option for a virtual GA,” Interpol said in a statement.

Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock said: “The UAE authorities worked extremely hard to identify solutions to the problems presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, unfortunately it is not possible for the GA to go ahead as planned”.

New dates for GA have not yet been announced. India is due to host the 91st GA of Interpol in 2022. It is yet to be ascertained if the postponement of this year’s GA will affect future annual meetings.

The postponement implies that besides the budget, which exceptionally can be approved by the executive committee, all other statutory items would remain pending until the next session of GA, Interpol said.

This includes elections to the executive committee and Commission for the Control (CCC) of Interpol’s files. The CCC decides cases of red notices after analysing presentations made by fugitives.

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